Meadows ready to bloom

MICHAEL MEADOWS' second season of Formula BMW may not have yielded the long-awaited win he had been so hoping for, but a string of impressive performances did get him noticed enough to secure a significant step up the racing ladder in 2007.

MICHAEL MEADOWS' second season of Formula BMW may not have yielded the long-awaited win he had been so hoping for, but a string of impressive performances did get him noticed enough to secure a significant step up the racing ladder in 2007.

Meadows' results on paper - eight podium finishes, a further handful in the top five and four front row starts - make far from unsatisfactory reading, but the one statistic missing from that list, his elusive maiden victory in the series, is the one he will remember the most.

"The start of the year went well," he said, "but after the third round we started having some DNFs and we knew it was going to take a lot of bad races for the other drivers if I was to win the championship.

"Overall my results were pretty respectable and enough to get me nominated as a BRDC Rising Star, but not winning a race in the end was very disappointing. We led for a bit in the final round at Silverstone but ultimately didn't have the pace to hold on there. On other days we had the pace to win but I wasn't able to get past people."

Indeed, being in the wrong place at the wrong time was a feature of the 19-year-old's year, and a mid-season dip in form would ultimately prove fatal to his title aspirations. He seemed to struggle particularly in qualifying, beginning outside the top ten for four successive races which meant the damage had already been done even before the lights went out. He managed to pull it all back together again for one final flourish in the last meeting at Silverstone, however, securing a brace of front row starting spots and two third positions in the races to cement his fifth place in the end-of-year standings.

"There were problems with the car, I got caught up in some on-track collisions and generally everything just went wrong," he admitted. "I lost some of my motivation due to the realisation that I wasn't going to win the championship, but though qualifying was difficult, we were usually able to make up ground in the races."

A six-week gap between the penultimate and final rounds allowed Michael to make a one-off Formula Renault appearance at Brands Hatch, offering the twin benefits of some extra practice during the prolonged break and the chance to measure his potential in a different series.

"We thought it would be good to compare myself and see how I got on," he explained. "The two are pretty different cars to drive. The Renault doesn't have much grip but definitely has more straight-line speed. It has a two-litre engine as opposed to the 1.2-litre in the BMW.

"We had the speed in the races but not in qualifying, when I was still making mistakes which cost me a vital few tenths and left us stuck down in the midfield. That made the races difficult because it's not easy to overtake at Brands Hatch. Although in essence the weekend was pressure-free, I was still putting pressure on myself but we got on relatively well."

The former Stratford College student will not be focusing on Formula Renault in 2007, however, but rather British Formula 3, the championship from which Jenson Button leapt to F1 stardom. Driving once more for Master Motorsport, he has already proven his mettle in testing by comfortably out-pacing some of his erst-while Formula BMW colleagues.

"I've spent a couple of days testing the car already and it's brilliant," he said. "I was quickest at Donington,

and I'm really happy with how it's all looking. Every championship at this level is hard, but I don't think I've got too much to learn in my driving - it's just refining the last little bits.

"The F3 car has loads of grip and is a lot quicker than the Formula BMW in a straight line. You hardly need to use the brakes - just lift off the throttle and the aerodynamics slow the car down - but you do need to be very precise. It's a completely different animal to the BMW but really good fun. It will be nice to go to the likes of Spa and Monza too, and the street race in Bucharest will be awesome, though learning the foreign tracks will be a big shock I think."

As to his chief aims for the campaign, beyond the tantalising prospect of being able to put one over his old Formula BMW rivals, Michael's resolve is clear.

"Winning the F3 National class is my objective for the year without a doubt," he said. "I want to get seen and if we have a good year, moving into either the World Series by Renault or Formula 3 Euroseries afterwards would be a good achievement. I really can't wait."